Traveling Student: Stirling Castle

Last Weekend we had our first weekend adventure in Scotland. We had met some friends at the University who were going to Stirling castle and invited to tag along with them. We set out early saturday morning and caught the Subway to Queen Street Station. From there we took a short 26 minute train ride and arrived at Stirling's train station. Once there our group of 4 set out by taxi to the Wallace Monument. Once arriving we took a short hike up to the monument itself. It is set up on a hill and while climbing we stopped at a short viewpoint and took some photos of the start of the highlands. After taking a few photos we finished the short hike up to the monument. Once there we went in and viewed the small museum and climbed the 256ish steps to the top of the tower. From there we saw some fantastic rainbows as well as a view of the battlefield for the battle of Stirling Bridge where William Wallace got his start of fame. After staying at the very windy top of the monument we went back down the spiraling steps and took a shuttle back to the bottom of the hill. Once arriving at the bottom we took a second taxi to Stirling Castle. At the castle we bought our Historic Scotland passes for the year which will allow us to get into most Scottish Heritage sites at no additional cost. Once we had our tickets we took a short break at the castle cafe to refuel for our exploration of the 15th century fortification. We spent about four hours at the castle exploring as many of the buildings as we could possible get to as well as some of the smaller, lesser known areas of the fortification. My favorite part of the castle was the walls. I enjoy looking at how the architects of the middle ages tried to make their structures invincible by geographical placement, as well as how they decide to build the walls and create strong and weak points. I really enjoy looking to see if they might have created a "perceived" weak point which actually creates a trap for enemy forces to fall into. But unfortunately I did not get too much time to do that this time, plus the structure has been modified a bit more than other original medieval castles I have been to. After working up an appetite while walking around the castle we headed back into town and ate at a local pub called Baker Street No. 2. We really enjoyed the food and then walked back to the train station and caught a ride home. We had a great time and we look forward to our next weekend adventure!